Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-02-19
fC0NCIUDED.)

DTCNtu 10 I've u hOill-pib tHt- IOi1S i-O ubIl-
doned TO the rank growing briars which
chung to 4rd tore her skirts, and scanned the
mares delicate skin with bleeling burrows
The fiinching brute pressed onward, in re-
Spouse to her mistress encouragement, but
the progress was gI1evously slow.
Presently Rachel began to see moving
figures little way ahead of her, and hear
voices i'll command She realized that she
was approaching the forces moving to the at
tack on the Union right. There was some
thing grotesaue, weird, even frIghtful iii the
sounds and the aspect of the moving masses
and figures, but she at last made out that
they were batteries, regiments and mounted
raen She decided that her best course was
II minge with and move along with them,
until she could get chance to ride away in
advance. For hours, that seemed weeks, she
remained entangled in the Sow moving BlaSs,
whose bewilderiHg vagaries OF motion We're
as trying to the endurance Of her steed as
they were exaSperating to her own impa-
tience Occasionally she caught glimpses OF
the Union ramp fires in the distance, that,
low and smoliering, told of the waning night,
and she would look anxiously over Ler left
shoulder for hint of the coming of the
dreaded dawn. Her mare terrified her with
symptoms Of giving out
At last she saw an unmistakahle silvery
break in the eastern clouds Half frantic she
broke suddenly out of the throng by an
abrupt turn to the right, and lashing her
mare savagely ga1oped where a grazing in
the dense darkness showed an opening be-
tween two cedar thickets that led to the
picket fires, half mile away. The mares
hoofs beat generously on the level limestone
floor, which there frequently rises through
the shallow soil and starves out the cedar.
Halt! Go back commanded hoarse
voice il front Of her, which was accompanied
with the clicking of gunlock "Ye can't
pass heahn
"Lenme pass, mister" she pleaded. I'm
ony u gal, with medicine fur my NANNY,
an Tn powerful anxious to git home
NO, We can't git out heah Orders are
strict; besides, if We did the Yankees'd cotch
ye. They're jest out thar"
She became aware that there were heavy
lines Of men lying near, ard fearing 10 say
another word she turned and rode away to
the left. She became eltangled with a cav
airy company moving toward the extreme
Union right, and riding with it several hun
just as the light began to be sufficient TO dis
tingush her from trooper She was now,
she was sure, outside OF the Confederate lines,
but she had gone far to the SOUTH where the
two lines were wide apart The Union flies
and drums, now sounding what seemed an
unsuspicious and cheerful reveille, were ap-
paIentlY at least a mile away. 1t was grow
ing lighter rapidly, and every passing mo-
ment was fraught with the weightiest ur
gency. She concentrated all her energies for
supreme effort, and lashed her mare for
ward over the muddy cotton field. The
beasts boots sank in the loose red loan as if
1t were qylicksand, and her pace was madden
ingly slow. At last Rachel came in sight of
a Union camp at the edge of a cedar thicEet.
The arms were stacked. the men were cooking
breakfast, and a battery of cannon standing
near had no horses attached.
Rachel beat the poor mares TANKS furiolls-
ly, and shouted: Turn out! The rebels are
coming! The rebels are coming
Her warning came too hate. Toe late, also,
came that Of the pickets, who were firing their
guns and rushing back To camp before an aw
fUl wave of men that had rolled out Of the
CeiaTs on the other side of the cotton field
A hundred boisteTous drums were now max
ing the thckets ring with the long roll
Rachel saw the men i'll front of her leave their
coffee making, rush to the musket stacks,
seize their guns and take their places in line.
In another minute they were ordered forward
to the fence In front Of them, upon which they
rested their muskets. Rachel rode through
their hue and turned around to look The
broad cotton field was covered with solid
3 4 -,
their peculiar fierce yell
FIRE. shouted the colonel in front of her
The SIX field pieces 20 her right split her ears
with their crash a thousand muskets blazed
out tire that Eithered the first line of the
advancing foe. Another crash. and the Con
federates had answered with musketry and
artillery. that tore the cedars around her,
sent the fence rails flying into the air and Gov
cred the ground with blue coats Her faith
fuI mare SHE'D, caught her hoof in a crack in
the limestone, and fell with broken leg
So began that terrible Wednesday, Dec 81,
1862
BraGg's plan of battle was very simple.
ROSenCra. had stretched out long thin wing
through the cedarS to the right Of the pike.
At the pike it was very strong, but two miles
away it degenerated into scattered regiments,
GnskilltuIly disposed Bragg threw against
these three Or four to one, with all the fury
of the southern soldier in the onset The line
was crUmbled, and before noon crushed back
to the pike.
Rachel disengagcd herself from her fallen
steed, and leaning against sapling, watched
the awful collision. She forgot the great
danger in the fascination of the terrible spec
Sba rf,ofIrrItf Sbp h1i nae Srala
the whole gamut of passion, but their widest
excuses were tame and frothy beside this
etstacv of rage in the fury Of battle The
rustic sOutherners whom she had seen at bail
play, the simple hearted northerners whom
she had alarmed at their coffee making, were
now transformed into furies mad with the
delirium of slaughter, and needless of their
own lives in the frenzy of taking those OF
others
"Eoa had better run back, young woman
said some one touching her elbow. The
whole lines going TO fall back. We're
fanked"
A disorderly stream of men, fragments Of
the shattered right, caught her in its rush,
and she was borne back 10 the open fields
living along the pike. There, as when tur-
bulent river empties into bay, the force Of
the current subsidized, and she was dropped like
silt The cowardly ones, hatlesS and weapon
less, ran off toward the pike, hut the greater
portion halted, formed in line, called for
their comrades to JOIN them, and sent for
more cartridges.
Almost dropping with fatigue, Rachel made
her way to pile Of cracker boxes 10y an
Osage-orange hedge, on knoll, and sat down.
pf hotI hFuuI Il
the tramped sod while rations were being is
sued, lay around. She was so hungry that
she picked up one or two that were hardly
soiled, AMI nibbled them.
The dreadful clamor Of battle grew louder
continually. The musketry had swollen into
sullen roar, with the artillery pulsating
high above it. Crashing voIleys of hundreds
of muskets fired at once, told of new regi-
neIts joining i'll the struggle. Confederate
brisades raised piercing treble yells as they